The bids are in, but no decision has been made yet on who will be the general contractor responsible for building the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center.

Bids were opened at 11 a.m. May 2 during a Brown County Commissioners meeting.

The lowest bid came from Brandt Construction out of Indianapolis at $8,552,000. The highest bid was from Dunlap Construction out of Columbus at $10,299,000.

Except for Dunlap’s, the bids from the six contractors ranged between $8.5 and $8.8 million.

Until legal counsel reviews all the bids to make sure all the contractors were bidding on like tasks, the commissioners will not know for sure if they are in budget.

Maple Leaf Management Group co-president Kevin Ault said meetings will be set up with the contractors to determine what all was included in their lump sum bids.

“There were three of them that were within $100,000 or so of each other,” Jim Schultz said after the meeting. Schultz chairs the construction committee for the Maple Leaf Management Group. “We’ll just have to take them under advisement,” he said.

The Maple Leaf Management Group will be responsible for narrowing down the bids to the lowest and most responsible bidders, said Lauren Box, with Barnes and Thornburg LLP. County Attorney Jake German was not present because he was traveling.

“Legal will review them to make sure that the bids comply with the actual requirements of the RFP (request for proposals),” she said.

“Ultimately, we need to make sure the bids are comparing apples to apples, so without some additional review and discussion, you really can’t determine whether this scope is the same or what we’re receiving is actually the same until you actually do a deep dive into the bids.”

Commissioners President Dave Anderson asked how long it will take legal to review the bids. Box estimated “a week or so.”

“I think it’s really going to depend if we have some compliant bids that are 100 percent, meet all of the requirements, and it’s pretty easy to do a cost comparison,” Box said.

“It might be week or so, but if none of the bids meet all of the requirements or if there’s other issues, then it could take longer.”

The county has borrowed $12.5 million to build the 2,000-seat performing arts center, on Snyder Farm land behind Brown County Health & Living Community. As of February, about $2.5 million had been spent on land and prep work, such as architect fees, bank fees, environmental testing and consulting work.

According to one of the loan documents, the $3.5 million Brown County Maple Leaf Building Corp. First Mortgage note, $5,549,712 had been budgeted for the construction of the building, $1,959,068 was budgeted for site work and $75,000 for landscaping.

At the April 24 Maple Leaf Management Group meeting, co-president Barry Herring said that event lighting, seating and sound would not be included in the bid amount.

The first mortgage note had $225,000 budgeted for sound, $276,290 for furniture (seats) and $150,000 for auditorium lighting/dimming/controls.

“We’ve already gone out and got the lowest bids from those two or three specialty contractors, which are exceptions to the actual general construction bids,” commissioner Diana Biddle said. She serves as the commissioners’ appointment on the Maple Leaf Management Group.

The bids opened last week were to include “all of the dirt work, sanitary lines, the storm sewer lines, the grading, the asphalt,” Herring said. “It’s basically going to be the shell.”

Some other “soft costs” will be paid on top of the construction, including civil engineering and architect fees. Another $167,000 was budgeted for a sound engineer. As of February, when the note was signed, $144,700 still remained of that sound engineer budget.

All soft costs totaled $1,262,744.40 in that first bank note budget.

Plus, interest will have to be paid as more money is withdrawn from the bank, Herring said. “As we spend more money, that interest bill is going to increase, increase, increase because there’s more debt,” he said.

The management group will meet next at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 9 in the Salmon Room at the County Office Building. The group is expected to review and sign an administration agreement with the county.

Groundbreaking will be scheduled once the construction bid is awarded, Ault said in March.

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The Brown County Commissioners opened the following bids from six contractors for the construction of the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center on May 2:

Boyle Construction Management Inc.: $8,646,000

Brandt Construction: $8,552,000

Dunlap Construction: $10,299,000

MacDougall Pierce Construction Inc.: $8,878,500

Patterson Horth Construction: $8,674,000

Weddle Brothers Construction: $8,894,000

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